Friday, May 23, 2008
NY
I'm in NY now, and my internet is all broken down. I'll give you guys a full update when i get a chance.
Rip Kirk
So, whilst on the block in NY where the world trade center used to be, i got a series of calls from SF, telling me that a good friend, ex-co-worker, and fellow messenger Kirk Janes, had be hit and killed while riding his bike. The details were sketchy, and i knew that recently he had been riding without a helmet. I assumed that that was what led to his death, but was later (and apparrently erroneously) told that he had died of some sort of chest injuries.
My condolences go out to him, his friends, his family, and his girlfriend Heather.
http://www.sfchroniclemarketplace.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/BAQU10R3J5.DTL
Wear a helmet kids, it's really important. I know that it makes you look uncool, and i know that it gives you funny tan lines in Summer, but it's really important. It's won't always save your life, and it's unclear whether or not it might have saved kirk's, but it's a small thing you can do for yourself, and for those that love you.
I had gotten closer and closer to kirk in the months before i left, and feel that i might have got to say goodbye more than most others, since i saw him the night before i left SF.
Kirk was a really good kid, and he is already missed, and will be for a long time to come.
peter
My condolences go out to him, his friends, his family, and his girlfriend Heather.
http://www.sfchroniclemarketplace.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/BAQU10R3J5.DTL
Wear a helmet kids, it's really important. I know that it makes you look uncool, and i know that it gives you funny tan lines in Summer, but it's really important. It's won't always save your life, and it's unclear whether or not it might have saved kirk's, but it's a small thing you can do for yourself, and for those that love you.
I had gotten closer and closer to kirk in the months before i left, and feel that i might have got to say goodbye more than most others, since i saw him the night before i left SF.
Kirk was a really good kid, and he is already missed, and will be for a long time to come.
peter
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Portland to Boston
My last couple days in portland very great, the weather got better, i had a bike courtesey on damian, and i was beginning to really know my way around. I spent one day checking out all the bike shops i could find in town.
Firstly, i hit up both City Bikes and the City Bikes Annex. They seemed pretty cool, lots of used bike parts, a small selection of bike, but with cool old (yet interesting and valuable) parts in the various bins. I spotted a few really rad Old-School bike shoes, from every era. Even the ones where you have the groove at the back of the shoe and you have to tighten the toe strap down to lock the foot in. No quick clipping out on those bad-boys. if you need to stop, you reach down, untighten the strap, and then step down. Also spotted was a beat up Suntour Mountain Tech deraileur. This derailleur was a big part of why suntour went out of business. Anyhow, they are pretty rare, and really intteresting from a historical point of view. Needless to say, i didn't bus anything, since i just can't carry it with me.
Then i went downtown, hung out with Damian and Briana, had a "King" sandwich of fried bannana and peanut butter. We played some pinball at "ground kontrol" around the corner, and then i continued my search for bike shops.
I hit up VeloShop, which is the most Cyclo-Cross oiented shop in town and i was really really impressed wit hte stuff they had in stock. Most notably the Dugast, FMB, etc handmade tubualars that most people have never even heard of, never mind seen in person. Most cross racers need to order this stuff of the internet, often used (because finding this stuf new is incredibly expensive and usually impossible). Well, these guys had tons of this stuf in stock, just lying around. crazy. Oh, and Spooky Carbon Cantilevers....who the hell has those IN-Stock? No-one. Incredible. I Talked to the owner Molly for a hot second, and asked a lot of questions. The question whether or not the shop had noticed anything relating to the supposed recession was definitly shirked. Seemed a little odd.
I headed down the street to Bike Central, and overhead the guy building the wheels bitchin' about velocity. i chimed in and struck up a conversation. They seemed really knowledgable, and i was impressed with how friendly the woman was. Not scared to answer questions, honest, very nice. They were straighforward and i liked them. Perhaps a little retro-grouchy, and the wheelbuilder was definitly a little burned out.
Next up i went past some other shop on NW 20th or 21st that was another cookie cutter too clean specialiazed shop. i passed through quickly. I was looking for the shop that specialized in mountian bikes, but couldn't remember the name or street. Eventually i called damian and he sorted me out. Fat Tire Farm. They were pretty clean and cookie cutter-esque, but they had a lot of stuff, nicer high end stuff, and a few less common parts. I talked to one of their people and they seemed to know what was up, but said that it would be hard to get any good mountian biking in if you didn't have a car. This annoyed me.
...
My sendoff was as the Shanghai Tunnel, which has a huge underground bar, which serves some mighty fine food. We got black bean and rice burgers, suprisingly good, and hella cheap. Four dollars gets you a great burger, with fries. I will have to try my hand at this at some point in the future.
Beers and stories. A couple other messengers showed up who i'd seen before and i felt a little more accepted, was pretty nice. I got drunk, and was amazingly offered a ride in a car to the airport! Which was great, except i left my beloved jacket in the car. I'm promised it will be sent on to me at some point in Boston, or New York.
I got to my flight, was drunk during check in, the plane took off at maybe 1opm, and i didn't get any sleep at all until the next afternoon, in boston.
Firstly, i hit up both City Bikes and the City Bikes Annex. They seemed pretty cool, lots of used bike parts, a small selection of bike, but with cool old (yet interesting and valuable) parts in the various bins. I spotted a few really rad Old-School bike shoes, from every era. Even the ones where you have the groove at the back of the shoe and you have to tighten the toe strap down to lock the foot in. No quick clipping out on those bad-boys. if you need to stop, you reach down, untighten the strap, and then step down. Also spotted was a beat up Suntour Mountain Tech deraileur. This derailleur was a big part of why suntour went out of business. Anyhow, they are pretty rare, and really intteresting from a historical point of view. Needless to say, i didn't bus anything, since i just can't carry it with me.
Then i went downtown, hung out with Damian and Briana, had a "King" sandwich of fried bannana and peanut butter. We played some pinball at "ground kontrol" around the corner, and then i continued my search for bike shops.
I hit up VeloShop, which is the most Cyclo-Cross oiented shop in town and i was really really impressed wit hte stuff they had in stock. Most notably the Dugast, FMB, etc handmade tubualars that most people have never even heard of, never mind seen in person. Most cross racers need to order this stuff of the internet, often used (because finding this stuf new is incredibly expensive and usually impossible). Well, these guys had tons of this stuf in stock, just lying around. crazy. Oh, and Spooky Carbon Cantilevers....who the hell has those IN-Stock? No-one. Incredible. I Talked to the owner Molly for a hot second, and asked a lot of questions. The question whether or not the shop had noticed anything relating to the supposed recession was definitly shirked. Seemed a little odd.
I headed down the street to Bike Central, and overhead the guy building the wheels bitchin' about velocity. i chimed in and struck up a conversation. They seemed really knowledgable, and i was impressed with how friendly the woman was. Not scared to answer questions, honest, very nice. They were straighforward and i liked them. Perhaps a little retro-grouchy, and the wheelbuilder was definitly a little burned out.
Next up i went past some other shop on NW 20th or 21st that was another cookie cutter too clean specialiazed shop. i passed through quickly. I was looking for the shop that specialized in mountian bikes, but couldn't remember the name or street. Eventually i called damian and he sorted me out. Fat Tire Farm. They were pretty clean and cookie cutter-esque, but they had a lot of stuff, nicer high end stuff, and a few less common parts. I talked to one of their people and they seemed to know what was up, but said that it would be hard to get any good mountian biking in if you didn't have a car. This annoyed me.
...
My sendoff was as the Shanghai Tunnel, which has a huge underground bar, which serves some mighty fine food. We got black bean and rice burgers, suprisingly good, and hella cheap. Four dollars gets you a great burger, with fries. I will have to try my hand at this at some point in the future.
Beers and stories. A couple other messengers showed up who i'd seen before and i felt a little more accepted, was pretty nice. I got drunk, and was amazingly offered a ride in a car to the airport! Which was great, except i left my beloved jacket in the car. I'm promised it will be sent on to me at some point in Boston, or New York.
I got to my flight, was drunk during check in, the plane took off at maybe 1opm, and i didn't get any sleep at all until the next afternoon, in boston.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Portland
Portland is awesome. I've been here for the last 5 days of so. I'll give you all the highlights.
Shooting guns with Donny. We started out with don's Ruger .38, which was a snub nosed revolver, with a 5 round cylinder. The gun had a pretty good kick to it, and i was genuinly scared to fire it. I've never fired a gun before, and the ease with which i was allowed totally free reign over it was pretty terrifying. I mean, i went in, filled out a little name and address thing, which they never checked or even looked at, and was given a deadly weapon with a box of 50 rounds. How do they know that i'm not totally insane?
Then don't friend Matt came, and we got to use his gun, which was a lot bigger, and used either .38 caliber rounds, or the more powerful .357 magnum rounds. That gun was crazy, those rounds were epic. after maybe 15 rounds my hands hurt from firing the gun. It kicked like crazy. Turns out I'm a pretty good shot, on my first attempt, i got 5/5 in the heart at 20 feet.
After that box of .357, we elected to rent a Glock 9mm semi-auto pistol. This things was light, comfortable to hold, and super easy to fire. The clip was surprisingly hard to load, the spring tension went up dramatically as more rounds were loaded, we couldn't fit any more than 9 rounds in the ten round magazine. After cocking the gun, the explosion from that shot ejects the brass casing, and automatically cocks the gun with the next round in the chamber, ready to fire again. Really well balanced and accurate shooting as fast as your trigger finger could pull. Truly a terrifying experience, not the actions themselves, but more-so the ramifications of it all.
Messenger Party with Damian,
Friday after work i went downtown to hang with Damian. I walked from the Rose Garden by the zoo, and although knowing the basic setup of the west side, made an assumption that ended with me being 10 blocks away from where i was supposed to be. After a little confusion i found the "Ash Street Saloon" and met up with Damian. We drank a few beers and talked. I was a little overwhelmed by suddenly being amongst all these unfamiliar people, but recognized jason, who i was not expecting to see, and didn't know that well from SF, but we'd hi-five occasionally when we were going thee opposite directions down the street. I'd always see him doing sketchy shit, and he'd always be embarrassed and complain that i was always there when he did something stupid or unusual.
After a few beers we went back to his place for beers and such, he had brought a bike to borrow while i was in town; a redline steel cross bike, setup fixed with a front brake, and atac pedals. I only had my sneakers on, so i was riding with a less than idea setup. We got food at michaels deli, a chicago style sandwich joint. At which point his friends heidi and co met up with us and we headed out to the going away party for a couple messengers. One of whom was going to SF for a while. This was in the north part of town, and i felt a little odd riding drunk, fixed (which i don't do often) on clips pedals, with no helmet, and no lights. But it was really fun. We stopped at the liquor store and got a couple sparks and head out to the party. They had a keg of Lompoc beer in the garage, which was a very good local brew. At some point, while i was refilling for the umteenth time, someone who was on the roof, had grabbed the chimney as support and it had all toppled over, bouncing off the roof onto the front yard, which was were everyone was hanging out. No-one was hit, amazingly, though Briana, who was talking to Damian, had one brick graze her cheek, leaving the slightest red mark. The night wore on, i talked to lots of cool folks, made some new friends, namely Briana and Amy, and the cops started taking an interest. In Sf, this party, in the suburbs, on the front yard, with plenty of minors drinking, would have been shut down long long ago, but here in portland the cops were happy to sit a block away and wait for anything crazy to happen. Eventually we rode back to Damian's house, i slept on the couch in my clothes, and we woke up at the ass crack of the day to get breakfast with Heidi and co at some amazing breakfast place, with the world's best biscuits (i don't even like american "biscuits"). A good night out. Thanks Damian, thanks Portland.
Spicy Beer.
Waiting for 2 hours for sushi
Riding through the rain to get Breakfast at 1pm
Teaching donny to ride a fixed gear
Going to Ground Kontrol, the pinball mecca of portland
Eating at Voodoo donut and getting sneered at by the punk staff
Climbing up Multnomah Falls
Saturday, May 10, 2008
North-Eastern Oregon
So i've spent the last week staying with AJ (aka OX) in northeastern oregon, in a small town called boardman. It's seriously country. And in the country you get to do things that you don't get to do in the city. like driving quad-bikes, burning huge piles of wood, fishing and gutting your catch, and being the only white guy at a cinco de mayo festival.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Fastboots leaves SF
So,
The last few days in SF were really hectic, getting the race together, getting rid of all my stuff, transporting the few things i wanted to keep to storage, cleaning endless cleaning. Saying goodbye to the people i managed to see, feeling bad about not seeing everyone. But i probably won't be gone forever, just a few months.
The race.
Was a little disappointed at the turnout for actual racers, but everyone who raced had fun, and the simple course was done in a backwards way by most of the racers. The checkpoints were (in the order i'd have done them).
Start at Columbia square park.
1. Kearny @ Broadway. (though the checkpoint lady was actually half-way up the hill there)
2. The very end of "municipal pier', at the very end of van-ness ave. It's a little finger that sticks out into the bay near aquatic park.
3. California street @ Fillmore. The location of the only seriously damaging accident i had as a messenger in SF. My sister Tara was drawing little yellow mustaches on racers. very cool.
4. Baker beach. thanks to kirk and heather for manning this spot for me.
5. The Boathouse at Stowe Lake (golden gate park). The center of the world for my childhood. It's Its at the boathouse DEFINED a summer day.
6. Grattan Playground. Curtis from Godspeed was hangin out here, hiding in the tube slides.
Finish at Columbia Square park.
The afterparty was great. I gave away a whole bunch of stuff and i feel satisfied that it all went to people that wanted/needed it. Frames, wheels, tires, cranks, brakes, levers, handlebars, stems... Clothes, a helmet, booze, and other stuff i can't even really remember...
The next few days comprised me packing everything up, giving alot of stuff away, and carrying the stuff i wanted to keep across town on the Pugsley, with a huge bike trailer behind it. People in SF aren't supprised by much, but me trucking 300lbs (at least) of stuff up polk street to the marina turned a lot of heads.
The last night was a debaucherous one at Cassidy's. Drunken-ness, free pool (one handed as is my specialty), and photo-booths.
peter
The last few days in SF were really hectic, getting the race together, getting rid of all my stuff, transporting the few things i wanted to keep to storage, cleaning endless cleaning. Saying goodbye to the people i managed to see, feeling bad about not seeing everyone. But i probably won't be gone forever, just a few months.
The race.
Was a little disappointed at the turnout for actual racers, but everyone who raced had fun, and the simple course was done in a backwards way by most of the racers. The checkpoints were (in the order i'd have done them).
Start at Columbia square park.
1. Kearny @ Broadway. (though the checkpoint lady was actually half-way up the hill there)
2. The very end of "municipal pier', at the very end of van-ness ave. It's a little finger that sticks out into the bay near aquatic park.
3. California street @ Fillmore. The location of the only seriously damaging accident i had as a messenger in SF. My sister Tara was drawing little yellow mustaches on racers. very cool.
4. Baker beach. thanks to kirk and heather for manning this spot for me.
5. The Boathouse at Stowe Lake (golden gate park). The center of the world for my childhood. It's Its at the boathouse DEFINED a summer day.
6. Grattan Playground. Curtis from Godspeed was hangin out here, hiding in the tube slides.
Finish at Columbia Square park.
The afterparty was great. I gave away a whole bunch of stuff and i feel satisfied that it all went to people that wanted/needed it. Frames, wheels, tires, cranks, brakes, levers, handlebars, stems... Clothes, a helmet, booze, and other stuff i can't even really remember...
The next few days comprised me packing everything up, giving alot of stuff away, and carrying the stuff i wanted to keep across town on the Pugsley, with a huge bike trailer behind it. People in SF aren't supprised by much, but me trucking 300lbs (at least) of stuff up polk street to the marina turned a lot of heads.
The last night was a debaucherous one at Cassidy's. Drunken-ness, free pool (one handed as is my specialty), and photo-booths.
peter
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